Sorry this is a bit long. I hope I don't miss anyone!
House of Brides Chicago Online: A+ I used them to order my wedding dress. While I have seen a lot of negative reviews about them, they have all been through people visiting the store I believe. I tried my dress on in a shop and then googled it online to find it cheaper. In the store my dress was $1800 before tax. When I called House of Brides and ordered over the phone is was $749 and that included shipping and insurance! The catch with them is that you have to order it online or over the phone for the discounted price, if you visit them in the store you will pay a much higher price (because of the costs it takes to run a store). I know this may sound shady to some, but it sort of just fell in my lap and I was very grateful to get my dress for less than half the price!
Fabulous Bridal: Bridesmaids Dresses. B They were pretty easy to work with, and although there were a few hurdles we got everything cleared. There was an issue with pricing because they quoted me one price last July then when we were ready to order the prices had gone up on the dresses by $20 however they honored the price originally quoted. Also, one of my girls never got her dress and she lives in Utah and when I called them to see where it was they said she picked it up. Obviously that never happened so I had them search their basement and they finally found the dress but it had no name on it. It irritated me a little that they had a random dress with no name on it and didn't think to look who it might belong to, and then to just assume my friend picked hers up eventhough she paid to have it shipped because when they went to ship it they couldn't find it. Besides those two minor issues everything else was great and we caught them during their 25% off bridesmaids dress sale which was even better!
Brogan's Formal Wear: Tuxes. A. They were extremely easy to work with and offered easily the best prices I have seen. They even offered extra shirts to the boys for a few bucks a piece for in case they sweat too much during pictures. They are very honorable and easy to deal with. All our guys were from out of town and they made it an easy transaction for them.
The Phoenix: Recepion. A+ I can't even begin to explain how amazingly wonderful this place was. Halfway through the coordinator I had resigned, but Carolina took over and it was like no one missed a beat! I used one of their all inclusive packages and they tailored it a little bit to fit my needs which was wonderful. They were prompt on their responses and setup meetings whenever needed. My guests were absolutely blown away by the food, everyone said it was the best food they had ever had at an event. Also, the service was outstanding. I have been to many weddings at many different venues and their service was definitely one of the best I have ever witnessed. I can't give this place and the staff enough praise.
Vincent Lighting: Reception Lighting. A+. Pricing was wonderful and they meet on site for free. They were so nice the whole time and dealt with my crazy requests. Randy was absolutely wonderful to work with and made sure everything I wanted happened!
St. Teresa of Avila. Ceremony. A+. The church was incredibly wonderful to work with and they let us bring in my husband's priest which was very nice. The coordinator we worked with made sure everything was flawless. The church is gorgeous inside as well!
Tres Belle Cake. A-. The cake was absolutely delicious and the most gorgeous wedding cake I had ever seen. During the months prior it was sometimes difficult to get a hold of Tracy, and that is the only reason I would give her an A-. The cake was delicious and beautiful. I had an idea of what I wanted and Tracy presented a picture of a cake she had recently seen and wanted to try and it was the perfect match! Everything was wonderful!
Precious Memory Creations:Photography. A. I loved Anthony and Brandon. I had both of them at my wedding and they had some great ideas. I honestly did not give them much to go with because I don't live in the city anymore so I left it totally up to them. While I haven't seen all the pictures, I have seen previews and I am absolutely amazed. They are perfect! The company is affordable and extremely easy to work with! We liked them so much we used them for family pictures at Christmas and will continue to use them for family sessions in the future!
The Chuck Taylors: Band. A+. Honestly I don't know where to begin. First of all their pricing is the best pricing I have seen on a band, and it includes as many hours as you needed so there was no additional fee. They were amazingly easy to work with and Greg was extremely fast with his responses! We had every guest at our wedding on the dance floor the whole night. There were people that I have never seen dance, and others that claim they never dance (and have bad knees) but they were up dancing for multiple songs. Most of my family had never been to a wedding with a band and they said they would never again have a DJ. They were so energetic and fun and sound awesome!!
Red Eye Photo Booth. A. People really loved the photo booth! The attendant was professional and very nice. Leading up to the night the consultants were very easy to work with and created a custom logo to put on our pictures. We loved them. I would definitely use them again.
A Limo Company. A+. They were very nice to work with over the phone and allowed us to pay tip and everything up front. They offered the best prices we found for the most hours. Our driver was awesome and put up with a lot of very loud adults singing and dancing away! They were on time and kept to the schedule well! Definitely a company that deserves more attention!!
Garfield Suites: Hotel. C-. We were fairly disappointed with the hotel. We have used them before for other weddings and they did really well. However, there were many problems leading up to the wedding weekend. We reserved penthouses and wanted the balconies and found out the week before that the balconies were under construction. No one told us this, we had to stumble upon it ourselves when we called to verify our reservaton. This angered us because the hotel knew we wanted to use the balconies to entertain for our rehearsal. They did accomodate us by allowing us to use a conference room with our own caterer though which was very nice. Also, the front desk employees were very rude the few times we went in before the weekend to check things out. We honestly felt like we were in Pretty Woman. Also, when we dropped off our out of town boxes the front desk staff seemed very annoyed. Then I later found out that they hadn't even been handing them out! I am not sure I would use this hotel in the future.
Cincinnati Catering: Rehearsal Dinner Food. D. While the food was very good and the attendant was extremely nice, I was sorely disappointed with the quantities. We paid $200 for a watermelon that was supposed to have enough fruit for 60 people. Honestly I don't know how it would have fed 60 people unless each person had a grape. The melon was tiny and if each person took a scoop of fruit it would have maybe fed 15 people. The veggie trays were $50 and were the smallest things I have seen. They were supposed to feed 25 people and again I don't know how that would work unless each person took one carrot. I was absolutely horrified by the amounts. Last, I had talked to the consultant about getting foil pans for the leftover chili items (we had a chili bar for 3ways and coneys which was fabulous) and they didn't put it on my order so the attendant had to take the extras with her. So people had to shove food down and hope they were full. Plus I paid a lot of money for the extras to be taken away.
Hopefully this helps! If I think of any more I will post them!